I sat,
with two friends, in the picture window of a quaint restaurant just off the
corner of the town-square. The food and the company were both especially good
that day.

As we talked, my attention was drawn outside, across the street. There,
walking into town was a man who appeared to be carrying all his worldly goods
on his back. He was carrying, a well-worn sign that read, 'I will work for
food.' My heart sank.

I brought him to the attention of my friends and noticed that others around us
had stopped eating to focus on him. Heads moved in a mixture of sadness and
disbelief.

We continued with our meal, but his image lingered in my mind. We finished our
meal and went our separate ways. I had errands to do and quickly set out to
accomplish them. I glanced toward the town square, looking somewhat
half-heartedly for the strange visitor. I was fearful, knowing that seeing him
again would call some response. I drove through town and saw nothing of him. I
made some purchases at a store and got back in my car.

Deep within me, the Spirit of God kept speaking to me: 'Don't go back to the
office until you've at least driven once more around the square.'

Then with some hesitancy, I headed back into town. As I turned the square's
third corner, I saw him. He was standing on the steps of the store front church, going through his sack.

I stopped and looked; feeling both compelled to speak to him, yet wanting to
drive on. The empty parking space on the corner seemed to be a sign from God:
an invitation to park. I pulled in, got out and approached the town's newest
visitor.

'Looking for the pastor?' I asked.

'Not really,' he replied, 'Just resting.'

'Have you eaten today?'

'Oh, I ate something early this morning.'

'Would you like to have lunch with me?'

'Do you have some work I could do for you?'

'No work,' I replied. 'I commute here to work from the city, but I would like
to take you to lunch.'

'Sure,' he replied with a smile.

As he began to gather his things, I asked some surface questions. Where you
headed?'

'St. Louis.'

'Where you from?'

'Oh, all over; mostly Florida.'

'How long you been walking?'

'Fourteen years,' came the reply.

I knew I had met someone unusual. We sat across from each other in the same
restaurant I had left earlier. His face was weathered slightly beyond his 38
years. His eyes were dark yet clear, and he spoke with an eloquence and
articulation that was startling. He removed his jacket to reveal a bright red
T-shirt that said, 'Jesus is The Never Ending Story.'

Then Daniel's story began to unfold. He had seen rough times early in life.
He'd made some wrong choices and reaped the consequences. Fourteen years
earlier, while backpacking across the country, he had stopped on the beach in
Daytona. He tried to hire on with some men who were putting up a large tent
and some equipment. A concert, he thought.

He was hired, but the tent would not house a concert but revival services, and
in those services he saw life more clearly. He gave his life over to God

'Nothing's been the same since,' he said. 'I felt the Lord telling me to keep
walking, and so I did, some 14 years now.'

'Ever think of stopping?' I asked.

'Oh, once in a while, when it seems to get the best of me, but God has given me
this calling. I give out Bibles. That's what's in my sack. I work to buy food
and Bibles, and I give them out when His Spirit leads.'

I sat amazed. My homeless friend was not homeless. He was on a mission and
lived this way by choice. The question burned inside for a moment and then I
asked: 'What's it like?'

'What?'

'To walk into a town carrying all your things on your back and to show your
sign?'

'Oh, it was humiliating at first. People would stare and make comments. Once
someone tossed a piece of half-eaten bread and made a gesture that certainly
didn't make me feel welcome. But then it became humbling to realize that God
was using me to touch lives and change people's concepts of other folks like
me.'

My concept was changing, too. We finished our dessert and gathered his things. Just outside the door, he paused,
then turned to me and said, 'Come Ye blessed of
my Father and inherit the kingdom I've prepared for you. For when I was hungry
you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, a stranger and you took
me in.'

I felt as if we were on holy ground. 'Could you use another Bible?' I asked.

He said he preferred a certain translation. It traveled well and was not too
heavy. It was also his personal favorite. 'I've read through it 14 times,' he
said.

'I'm not sure we've got one of those, but let's stop by our church and see. I
was able to find my new friend a Bible that would do well, and he seemed very
grateful.

'Where are you headed from here?' I asked.

Well, I found this little map on the back of this amusement park coupon.'

'Are you hoping to hire on there for awhile?'

'No, I just figure I should go there. I figure someone under that star right
there needs a Bible, so that's where I'm going next.'

He smiled, and the warmth of his spirit radiated the sincerity of his mission. I drove him back to the town-square where we'd met two hours earlier, and as
we drove, it started raining. We parked and unloaded his things.

'Would you sign my autograph book?' he asked. 'I like to keep messages from
folks I meet.'

I wrote in his little book that his commitment to his calling had touched my
life. I encouraged him to stay strong. And I left him with a verse of
scripture from Jeremiah: 'I know the plans I have for you, declared the Lord,
'plans to prosper you and not to harm you; Plans to give you a future and a
hope.'

'Thanks, man,' he said. 'I know we just met and we're really just strangers,
but I love you.'

'I know,' I said. 'I love you, too. The Lord is good!'

'Yes, He is. How long has it been since someone hugged you?' I asked.

'A
long time,' he replied.

And so on the busy street corner in the drizzling rain, my new friend and I
embraced, and I felt deep inside that I had been changed.

He put his things
on his back, smiled his winning smile and said, 'See you in the New Jerusalem.'

'I'll be there!' was my reply.

He began his journey again. He headed away with his sign dangling from his
bedroll and pack of Bibles. He stopped, turned and said, 'When you see
something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?'

'You bet,' I shouted back, 'God bless.'

'God bless.' And that was the last I saw of him.

Late that evening as I left my office, the wind blew strong. The cold front
had settled hard upon the town. I bundled up and hurried to my car.

As I sat
back and reached for the emergency brake, I saw them ... a pair of well-worn
brown work gloves neatly laid over the length of the handle. I picked them up
and thought of my friend and wondered if his hands would stay warm that night
without them.

Then I remembered his words: 'If you see something that makes you think of me,
will you pray for me?'

Today - his gloves lie on my desk in my office. They help me to see the world
and its people in a new way, and they help me remember those two hours with my
unique friend and to pray for his ministry. 'See you in the New Jerusalem,' he
said. Yes, Daniel, I know I will...

'I shall pass this way but once. Therefore, any good that I can do or
any kindness that I can show, let me do it
now, for I shall not pass this
way again.'

PLEASE HELP SHARE THE
BEST NEWS GOD HAS FOR EVERY PERSON!

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person needs to hear on this planet, randomly click on just three (3) of the
JESUS DID IT! links below. It will
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God will reward you! (Of
course, be highly encouraged to forward one or more of these video clips to
those who may have never heard what Jesus did for them on the cross ...
especially young people). Thank you so much!

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Dear Reader - are you at peace with God? If not, you
can be. Do you know what awaits you when you die? You can have
the assurance from God that heaven will be your home, if you would like
to be certain. Either Jesus Christ died for your sins, or He didn't (He
did!). Are you prepared to stand before God on the Judgment Day
and tell Him that you didn't need
the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross to have your sins forgiven and
get in right-standing with God? We plead with you ... please don't make
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